What citizens expect from media?

There should be no limit except on military intelligence. Too many men die to keep our country safe and it does this country harm when the media reports too many details to the enemy. If they media go ahold of information illegally, then they should not be allowed to report it. If it was released, then it is free game.

Freedom of the press is a double edged sWord. The public should expect honesty and fair news. Biased media is hurtful to our country and our leaders.

While the above may be true about the media and its relationship with the government, it does not automatically follow that the same policy should apply to the media reporting on private citizens. There is significant support for the idea that the media should not have unlimited rights to show or report anything about a private citizen. On the other side, there are good public policy reasons why media reporting of corporations should follow similar guidelines as its reporting on government.

In my opinion, the key thing missing from modern media reporting is accountability. Media should be required to print the WHOLE truth, since it is easy to lie by ommission, and there should be significant consequences for lying or distorting facts. The extremely weak libel laws in the USA mean that it is easy for the Media to lie with no consequence. Having a media lie to the populace is almost as bad as having the media print nothing.